Sex-offender Move Prompts Legislation

April 07, 2000|By Stanley Ziemba, Tribune Staff Writer.

In the wake of a controversial decision to relocate sex offenders to a Joliet correctional center, two legislators on Thursday introduced a bill in the Illinois General Assembly that would require state officials to give notice whenever such transfers are contemplated.

State Rep. Jack McGuire (D-Joliet) and state Sen. Larry Walsh (D-Joliet) said the bill, if enacted, would give local governments time to take steps to block such transfers when public opinion so dictates.

When the Illinois Department of Human Services announced two months ago that it was temporarily transferring 108 of its sexually violent wards from a center in LaSalle County to the state correctional center annex at Woodruff Road and Collins Street in Joliet, Joliet officials complained they were given no advance notice.

Despite ongoing legal efforts by the city to block the transfers, the state agency began moving the violent sex offenders at the end of last month.

McGuire said that in an age when public notification is needed before "a hog farm or a landfill is allowed to move into a community," it makes no sense to permit the relocation of "hundreds of violent sex offenders" without proper advance notice.

He said his and Walsh's bill would require, among other things, that the Human Services Department give written notice of planned relocations to the municipality and the county into which it proposes to transfer violent sex offenders. It also would require the department to post a notice for public view at local libraries and government facilities at least 90 days in advance of any planned transfers and offer to hold a public hearing no less than 30 days before the agency sets its relocation plans.

In addition, the bill would require the Human Services Department to provide the same kind of advance notice whenever it proposed to expand any of its existing facilities for violent sex offenders.

"No community wants violent sex offenders in their back yards," McGuire said. "This bill would ensure that all parties involved have equal time to voice their opinions. Intense public pressure could dissuade the Human Services Department from going through with a transfer."